What is SEO Writing?

A term that you may or may not have heard is “SEO writing.” The acronym SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization,” and the phrase “SEO writing” integrates the Search Engine Optimization formula into actual content. SEO writing is vital for businesses looking to market online. SEO content helps enhance your visibility on engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and more. Getting on the first page of search results will be a major benefit for your business, and SEO can get you onto that page if you structure your content correctly. Formulaic though it is, SEO writing doesn’t have to restrict quality, and you can still get your information across without sounding robotic.

Why do businesses need SEO writing?

The statistics on search engine usage prove that in order to be competitive in the marketing field, businesses need to optimize their results. Google is the most popular search engine in usage today, and its statistics are mind-blowing. According to Internet Live Stats, there are 40,000 Google searches per second, 3.5 billion searches per day, and a whopping 1.2 trillion searches per year. Google’s popularity continues to grow, and it has sharply increased in the past decade. SEO writing will help your business take advantage of peoples’ searches, because according to AdWeek, 81% of shoppers research products and businesses online before making their purchase.

All of this “tech talk” may be overwhelming to internet users who aren’t familiar with online marketing. Below, we’ll give you three tips to getting started using SEO writing.

#1: Structure your content in HTML format.

In order to perform well on a search engine, your content should be in HTML format. This will help keep your site indexable by search engines, as non-text content tends to go unnoticed by search engine crawlers. This is not to say that you should eschew images, but keep the majority in HTML form. If your website has video or audio, you should provide a transcript as well if possible. Transcription work is not easy, and it can often be dull, but it is very important if you want to stick with the HTML theme.

#2: Use targeted keywords.

Keywords (specific words or phrases that apply to your business) are what search engines live on. People, generally, don’t type full sentences into search engine. Use your keyword at least once in the title of the page, once at the top of the page in prominent fashion, 2 to 3 times in the body of the content (more if there is more content), in the meta-description tag, in the URL, and at least once in the alt-image text, which will be useful if the individual does an image search.

Note: don’t “overstuff” your article with keywords as a way to try to trick the search engine crawlers. It will be noticeable and make your text awkward. Also, it may alert spam filters, and your site will not appear in the results.

#3: Avoid duplicate content.

There are multiple websites that provide SEO tools to ward against plagiarism and avoid duplicate content (where the words on your site match another). Search engines are cracking down on plagiarized content, and they won’t put your site up on the first pages of results if they find that you’ve plagiarized. There are algorithms for it as well, so the checking is not manual, and it is very accurate. Google, for example, is strict with duplicate content, and will rank your site low if it has duplicate content. This makes sense, as plagiarized or copied content makes for, as Google calls it, a “poor user experience.” People want variety in their search results.

SEO content is vitally important for online marketers, and there are a lot of nuances and tricks to going about constructing a site that both ranks high on search engine results and is totally original. It may take a while to get the hang of it, but once you do, you will see the benefits for your business and its website traffic and conversion rate.